


A knight that wanted what he couldn't have

by Brutal_Harrier



Category: Octopath Traveler, project octopath traveler
Genre: Angst, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, a little bit of internalized homophobia, but the game isn't out yet, i hope you guys enjoy this before it gets obliterated by canon, i made this purposefully vague, i wrote this at one am when i should have been writing an essay because i'm a bad college student, introspective, kinda sorta i'm trying here okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 19:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12217209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brutal_Harrier/pseuds/Brutal_Harrier
Summary: They met in the academy, and they were rivals, and they both became respectable knights who died in service to their liege. At least that's what should have happened. But it didn't go quite like that, and when Olberic looks back on it he still can't quite understand.





	A knight that wanted what he couldn't have

**Author's Note:**

> Listen I'm gay and i've decided loving Olberic is gay culture.

They met in the academy.

Olberic was there to become a knight, like his father before him, and his father before him, and _his_ father before him, going back to a time almost unfathomably long ago. Erhardt was different; he wasn’t from a long line of knights like the rest of the trainees. In fact no one really knew where he came from, and anyone who asked got out of that conversation no longer wanting to know.

Erhardt showed promise form the beginning, he learned fast, trained hard and no one could keep up with him. No one but Olberic, so they became friends. They trained together, spared together, even roomed together at one point.

Everyone around them assumed they were rivals and a small bitter part of Olberic’s heart was sure that must have been how Erhardt had seen them as well. But it had always been different for Olberic even thinking about it now brought forth a roaring storm of emotions he couldn’t and wouldn’t name. Still he could admit that all he’d ever wanted was to stay by Erhardt’s side.

That one desire weighed heavy in his soul and left a burning longing that left him choking on his own desire. But Olberic was no fool; he knew exactly what would happen if he were to be open about these shameful feelings. There was no place for a knight that wanted what he couldn’t have. No place for a man who sought after the forbidden.

So desires were pushed away and wants were forgotten. Olberic and Erhardt both became respectable knights and in a better world that’s where the story would have ended. But it didn’t because as much as he crushed and hid and denied Olberic had still held just one tiny piece of traitorous hope, and hope was a dangerous thing to have.

He’d been in a nearly blind panic, the kings guard had been slain to the last man. Of course he’d needed to locate King Alfred at once. But part of him that one damned part of him he just couldn’t stamp out was looking for Erhardt.

But then he’d found them together, and his world crumbled away. That was the first time he stopped hoping.


End file.
